Steam’s Summer Sale officially concluded last week, but Valve had one last surprise in store for cheaters who had hoped to score cheap replacements on games (or to build up a larger stockpile of titles while cheating in others). On July 6, Steam banned more than 40,000 people — 40,426 according to Steamdb.info — vastly exceeding its previous daily ban record.

" Valve still has a ways to go before it’ll match its total monthly ban rate, however. In June 2016, the company banned 172,262 people via VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat). That works out to a bit more than 5,875 bans per day and remains a high water mark for the company by a substantial margin. Since the banhammer swung on July 6, Valve has maintained a more sedate pace, at 700 to 2,000 bans per day during the intervening period."